Effect of obstacles on the detonation diffraction and subsequent re-initiation

The DCRFoam solver (density-based compressible solver) built on the OpenFOAM platform is used to simulate the reflection and diffraction processes that occur when detonation waves collide with various objects. Static stoichiometric hydrogen–oxygen mixtures diluted with 70% Ar are used to form stable detonation waves with large cells, with initial conditions of 6.67 kPa pressure and 298 K temperature. The diameters of the cylindrical obstacle range from 6 mm to 22 mm, with x = 230 mm, x = 244 mm, and x = 257 mm being the chosen position. Cylindrical, square, triangular, and inverted triangular obstacles are used, and the quenched detonation re-initiation processes behind them are investigated. In the detonation diffraction process, four triple points exist at the same time due to the effect of cylindrical obstacles of smaller diameters. The re-initiation distance of the detonation wave increases with the increase of cylindrical obstacle diameter. Both the Mach reflection angle and the decoupled angle decrease as the diameter increases. When the location of the cylindrical obstacles is changed, the detonation wave dashes into the obstacles with its different front structures, it is easier to realize the detonation re-initiation when the weak incident shock at the front of a detonation wave strikes the obstacles, and the re-initiation distance decreases by 17.1% when compared with the longest re-initiation distance. The detonation re-initiation distance is shortest under the action of cylindrical obstacles, however the quenched detonation cannot be re-initiated when the inverted triangle and square obstacles are used. The suppression effects of inverted triangle and square obstacles on detonation waves are more evident.     

Numerical investigations on flashback dynamics of premixed methane-hydrogen-air laminar flames

Injecting hydrogen into the natural gas network to reduce CO₂ emissions in the EU residential sector is considered a critical element of the zero CO₂ emissions target for 2050. Burning natural gas and hydrogen mixtures has potential risks, the main one being the flame flashback phenomenon that could occur in home appliances using premixed laminar burners. In the present study, two-dimensional transient computations of laminar CH₄ + air and CH₄ + H₂ + air flames are performed with the open-source CFD code OpenFOAM. A finite rate chemistry based solver is used to compute reaction rates and the laminar reacting flow. Starting from a flame stabilized at the rim of a cylindrical tube burner, the inlet bulk velocity of the premixture is gradually reduced to observe flashback. The results of the present work concern the effects of wall temperature and hydrogen addition on the flashback propensity of laminar premixed methane-hydrogen-air flames. Complete sequences of flame dynamics with gradual increases of premixture velocity are investigated. At the flame flashback velocities, strong oscillations at the flame leading edge emerge, causing broken flame symmetry and finally flame flashback. The numerical results reveal that flashback tendency increase with increasing wall temperature and hydrogen addition rate.     

A large scale parallel fluid-structure interaction computing platform for simulating structural responses to a detonation shock

Due to the intrinsic nature of multi-physics, it is prohibitively complex to design and implement a simulation software platform for study of structural responses to a detonation shock. In this article, a partitioned fluid-structure interaction computing platform is designed for parallel simulating structural responses to a detonation shock. The detonation and wave propagation are modeled in an open-source multi-component solver based on OpenFOAM and blastFoam, and the structural responses are simulated through the finite element library deal.II. To capture the interaction dynamics between the fluid and the structure, both solvers are adapted to preCICE. For improving the parallel performance of the computing platform, the inter-solver data is exchanged by peer-to-peer communications and the intermediate server in conventional multi-physics software is eliminated. Furthermore, the coupled solver with detonation support has been deployed on a computing cluster after considering the distributed data storage and load-balancing between solvers. The 3D numerical result of structural responses to a detonation shock is presented and analyzed. On 256 processor cores, the speedup ratio of the simulations for a detonation shock reach 178.0 with 5.1 million of mesh cells and the parallel efficiency achieve 69.5%. The results demonstrate good potential of massively parallel simulations. Overall, a general-purpose fluid-structure interaction software platform with detonation support is proposed by integrating open source codes. And this work has important practical significance for engineering application in fields of construction blasting, mining, and so forth.     

基于OpenFOAM的过冷流动沸腾数值模拟

过冷流动沸腾现象被广泛应用于工业生产和动力系统中,对该现象的准确预测是两相流CFD模拟的重要研究方向。本文详细阐述了该模拟过程中的欧拉两流体模型及相关辅助模型,基于开源CFD平台OpenFOAM,模拟了4.5 MPa下竖直圆管内的过冷流动沸腾,得到了截面空泡份额、液相平均温度及壁面温度沿轴向的分布。计算结果与实验值符合良好,说明了模型的有效性和程序的正确性。本文可为在OpenFOAM中添加新的模型及开发新的求解器以模拟过冷流动沸腾问题提供参考。     

风剪切下风力机组俯仰控制策略研究

为增加风电场总输出功率,采用大涡模拟(LES)方法,利用致动线法(ALM),基于开源CFD软件OpenFOAM对风剪切下的风力机组4种风轮俯仰工况进行数值模拟,对比每种工况下的风电场总输出功率,并结合流场参数分析输出功率存在差别的内在原因。结果表明:风电场上游风力机尾迹可对下游风力机性能产生严重影响;风轮俯仰角增加时,风电场上游风力机输出功率先增后减,下游风力机输出功率持续增加;仰角为9°时风电场总输出功率比无俯仰控制策略时提升393982.25 W。     

Modeling Abrasion Forces in a Pneumatically Powered Grinding Tool Using Compressible Large Eddy Simulation

This paper describes the design of a new kind of miniature abrading sphere, which is magnetically mounted inside a spherical gap and set in rotation pneumatically with air. Large eddy simulation is performed in conjunction with the compressible Smagorinsky model. Minimal temperature variation allows for the assumption of adiabatic walls. Fluid-solid interaction is modeled using the law of the wall for compressible turbulent flow. A parametric study is done to determine optimal geometric layout while taking physical restrictions into account. The resulting optimal configuration is then examined in detail in order to determine demands to be met by the computerized control of the magnetic bearing as well as to quantify the force available to the abrasion process. Finally, a mathematical relation is given that determines available abrasion force depending on standard volumetric flow rate and rotation frequency. The findings presented here provide a basis for further development of smaller versions of the tool.     

Study on applicability of different turbulence models in simulation of molten steel flow in tundish

The internal structure of continuous casting tundish is complex, and the flow state of molten steel is diverse. Detailed and accurate information of molten steel flow field is the premise of tundish control and optimization. Numerical simulation method has been widely used in the study of molten steel flow field in tundish. The accurate numerical simulation of molten steel flow field is inseparable from the appropriate turbulence model and the corresponding boundary conditions. Based on the CFD open source code OpenFOAM v8, three different types of turbulence models (standard k-ε model, RNG k-ε model, and SST k-ω model) were applied to simulate the molten steel flow in the tundish. Additionally, two boundary conditions of symmetry plane and the free slip were also applied. Comparing the simulation results to the experimental data, it shows the RTD curve obtained by the simulation with the SST k-ω model can successfully predict the "double peaks" that appeared in the experiment. Besides, the response time and peak value time are closest to that of experimental results. For SST k-ω, when changing the type of liquid surface boundary from free slip to symmetrical plane, the error of tracer response time obtained is reduced from 93.89% to less than 8.35%, and the error of peak time is reduced from 100.78% to about 12.32%. It can be concluded that the SST k-ω model and the symmetry boundary are applicable for the simulation of molten steel flow in the tundish.     

CFD analysis of cooling effects in H2-fed solid oxide fuel cells

A model is presented that describes the main physical phenomena affecting in the performance of a Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The implementation of the model uses an in-house algorithm in a computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) framework that may be used to optimize the SOFC operational parameters. The physical phenomena considered in the model are: (i) mass conservation: multicomponent and multimodal mass transfer in gas channels and electrodes (convection, ordinary diffusion, Knudsen diffusion); (ii) momentum conservation in the gas channels and electrodes; (iii) energy conservation: coupled heat transfer across the whole cell (gas channels, electrodes and electrolyte); (iv) electrochemistry: half-reactions are considered to take place at the electrode-electrolyte interfaces, and activation losses are computed using the general version of the Butler-Volmer equation. The main features of this CFD tool are: (i) it allows the prediction of the characteristic (I-V) curve of an H₂-fed cell; (ii) it is suitable for both tubular and planar cells; (iii) it has been implemented using OpenFOAM-1.5-dev, an open-source CFD-platform based on the Finite Volume Method.The numerical results are validated with published experimental I-V curves for a hydrogen-fed anode-supported micro-tubular SOFC, and a numerical analysis of the influence of different operation conditions on the temperature distribution is performed to procure a better understanding of the heat management of the cell.     

Pressure distribution in small hydrodynamic journal bearings considering cavitation: a numerical approach based on the open‐source CFD code OpenFOAM®

Hydrodynamic journal bearings are traditionally designed using the half‐Sommerfeld theory. This consists in a semi‐analytical solution of the continuity and momentum conservation equations substituting negative pressures with the ambient pressure. This hypothesis provides acceptable results, but a better understanding of the phenomena considering the effective pressure distribution including 3D and cavitation effects can be achieved only by using numerical methods. For this reason, some different solvers and cavitation models were applied to different geometries for which literature provides experimental data. Once the numerical model was validated, a parametric analysis was performed in order to better understand the influence of the rotational speed and the relative eccentricity on the attitude angle, the reaction forces, the pressure distribution and the power losses of a small journal bearing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于OpenFOAM的液态金属铅铋三维流动换热特性数值模拟研究

铅铋快堆是第4代核能系统的主要堆型之一,但由于液态金属铅铋的热物性与传统工质如水、空气等有很大不同,假设流动边界层与热边界层相似的雷诺比拟原理已不再适用。本文在开源程序OpenFOAM中开发了基于k-ε-k_θ-ε_θ四因子模型的自定义求解器,考虑热边界层与流动边界层的差异性,对带绕丝棒束通道中液态金属铅铋的流动换热现象进行数值模拟,得到了速度、温度等重要热工水力参数的三维分布,揭示了绕丝对冷却剂流动传热过程的影响规律,并将计算结果与经典实验关联式进行对比,结果符合良好,证明了所用模型和程序的正确性。本研究可为在OpenFOAM中添加新模型、开发自定义求解器以及开展针对液态金属流动换热问题的计算流体动力学（CFD）模拟提供参考。